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The director of such popular films as The Sound of Music, West Side Story and the brilliant The Day the Earth Stood Still, died yesterday at teh age of 91.
Robert Wise RIP
Wise made a bunch of my favorite movies.
The Set-Up (1949) is a great Noir staged in real-time, centered around an aging boxer (Robert Ryan) who is supposed to throw a fight for mobsters. But he knows it may be the last chance he has to prove what kind of a fighter he is, so round after round he does his best rather than take a dive - knowing he'll have to deal with the dangerous men afterwards, and all while his long-suffering wife impatiently waits for him in a cheap hotel outside the arena. Another fantastic job by Ryan, the tension builds masterfully, and it has probably the best choreographed scenes of actual boxing inside the ring until Raging Bull came along about thirty years later.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is one of the first real Sci-Fi movies from Hollywood and still one of the best. A large flying saucer lands in Washington D.C.; Klaatu (Michael Rennie), a humanoid from another planet, and his silent robot GORT emerge and inform the world they must learn to be peaceful or perish. Simple but effective parable, cemented by the performances of Rennie and Patricia Neal, the earth woman who becomes involved with him during his stay. "Klaatu barada nikto."
Executive Suite (1954) is another parable, this time set in the office high rise of a successfull furniture company. As the movie opens, the founder and CEO of the company is hit by a car and killed. This leaves the reigns of the business up for grabs. He had named no clear successor, but it's obvious that the moneyman Shaw (Frederic March) will want the post and probably get it. A meeting is scheduled with all the board members, including William Holden's engineer, who hasn't liked the direction his once beloved company has been heading in recent years. It becomes a behind closed doors powerplay to get enough of the votes for one or the other to be named president. Made in the middle of the 1950s, it's a movie ahead of its time that saw the trends underneath the Eisenhower-era complacency that were signaling the greed and exccess of profits over craftsmanship that would explode by the 1980s. Amazing ensemble cast too, with Barbara Stanwyck, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger, Nina Foch, Paul Douglas, Shelley Winters, Walter Pidgeon and June Allyson joining March and Holden.
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), another great boxing movie from Wise, this one a biopic of Rocky Graziano, played by Paul Newman, a troubled man who bounced from prison and the Army to become champion. Intended as a vehicle for James Dean just before his death, it winds up as Newman's breakout role, and he's excellent as is the supporting cast, especially Everett Sloane as Rocky's crusty manager. Sylvester Stallone clearly drew inspiration from Somebody Up There when he sat down to write his fictional Rocky, and it's a movie that still holds up today.
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is a gritty heist Noir made grittier by including the hatred of racism in its mix. Ed Begley (that's Sr. , kids) is a small-time crook with his eyes on a bank he thinks is ripe for the picking. It's a three-man job though, and he enlists Robert Ryan's Earle and Harry Belafonte's Johnny. A black man is required for one crucial step of the plan, but that doesn't make Ryan's ugly racist happy about the situation. The tensions between Ryan and Belafonte boil faster than the tension of the bank robbery, leading to a firey conclusion.
"Some houses are born bad." Yes, the kept the tagline of Wise's wonderful The Haunting (1963) for the horribly dull waste of a 1999 remake. That FX-laden dud failed to capture even one ounce of the dread and tension that runs throughout the original, which is still one of the best ghost stories made for the big screen. Julie Harris is so very good as the disturbed psychic invited to the supposedly haunted house for a cynical study, who becomes more disturbed when the evil begins to possess her.
The Sand Pebbles (1966) is the kind of political action thriller epic they simply don't make anymore. Wise made one of the very best. Steve McQueen, who had a small role in Somebody Up There Likes Me years before, gives maybe his best performance ever as a U.S.S. gunboat engineer who gets caught up in the Chinese revolution of 1926 when he and his crew are sent on a mission to protect American interests up the Yangtze river. McQueen does his strong loner with a penchant for self-sacrifice thing perfectly and at a deeper level than he had previously, garnering what would be his only Oscar nomination (unfortunately for him this was also the year of A Man for All Seasons and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). The supporting cast is just as stellar, including Mako, Dickie Attenborough, Candy Bergen, Richard Crenna and Joe Turkel. Great movie.
Wise won his Oscars for the Musicals West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965), but as should be clear his filmography was diverse and accomplished. He also helmed I Want to Live! (1958), Run Silent Run Deep (1958), The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Body Snatcher (1945), Two for the Seesaw (1962), Audrey Rose (1977), Helen of Troy (1956) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Starting his career in sound effects in the early days of that technology and then moving to the editing room for such classics as The Hunchback of Natroe Dame (1939), My Favorite Wife (1940), The Devil & Daniel Webster (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Citizen Kane (1941) - getting an Oscar noimination for Kane, Robert Wise really did it all in the business, starting in the 1930s and finishing his career in the 1980s! His name doesn't have the same recognition as some of his contemporaries, but he was one of the great filmmakers.
The Set-Up (1949) is a great Noir staged in real-time, centered around an aging boxer (Robert Ryan) who is supposed to throw a fight for mobsters. But he knows it may be the last chance he has to prove what kind of a fighter he is, so round after round he does his best rather than take a dive - knowing he'll have to deal with the dangerous men afterwards, and all while his long-suffering wife impatiently waits for him in a cheap hotel outside the arena. Another fantastic job by Ryan, the tension builds masterfully, and it has probably the best choreographed scenes of actual boxing inside the ring until Raging Bull came along about thirty years later.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is one of the first real Sci-Fi movies from Hollywood and still one of the best. A large flying saucer lands in Washington D.C.; Klaatu (Michael Rennie), a humanoid from another planet, and his silent robot GORT emerge and inform the world they must learn to be peaceful or perish. Simple but effective parable, cemented by the performances of Rennie and Patricia Neal, the earth woman who becomes involved with him during his stay. "Klaatu barada nikto."
Executive Suite (1954) is another parable, this time set in the office high rise of a successfull furniture company. As the movie opens, the founder and CEO of the company is hit by a car and killed. This leaves the reigns of the business up for grabs. He had named no clear successor, but it's obvious that the moneyman Shaw (Frederic March) will want the post and probably get it. A meeting is scheduled with all the board members, including William Holden's engineer, who hasn't liked the direction his once beloved company has been heading in recent years. It becomes a behind closed doors powerplay to get enough of the votes for one or the other to be named president. Made in the middle of the 1950s, it's a movie ahead of its time that saw the trends underneath the Eisenhower-era complacency that were signaling the greed and exccess of profits over craftsmanship that would explode by the 1980s. Amazing ensemble cast too, with Barbara Stanwyck, Louis Calhern, Dean Jagger, Nina Foch, Paul Douglas, Shelley Winters, Walter Pidgeon and June Allyson joining March and Holden.
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), another great boxing movie from Wise, this one a biopic of Rocky Graziano, played by Paul Newman, a troubled man who bounced from prison and the Army to become champion. Intended as a vehicle for James Dean just before his death, it winds up as Newman's breakout role, and he's excellent as is the supporting cast, especially Everett Sloane as Rocky's crusty manager. Sylvester Stallone clearly drew inspiration from Somebody Up There when he sat down to write his fictional Rocky, and it's a movie that still holds up today.
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) is a gritty heist Noir made grittier by including the hatred of racism in its mix. Ed Begley (that's Sr. , kids) is a small-time crook with his eyes on a bank he thinks is ripe for the picking. It's a three-man job though, and he enlists Robert Ryan's Earle and Harry Belafonte's Johnny. A black man is required for one crucial step of the plan, but that doesn't make Ryan's ugly racist happy about the situation. The tensions between Ryan and Belafonte boil faster than the tension of the bank robbery, leading to a firey conclusion.
"Some houses are born bad." Yes, the kept the tagline of Wise's wonderful The Haunting (1963) for the horribly dull waste of a 1999 remake. That FX-laden dud failed to capture even one ounce of the dread and tension that runs throughout the original, which is still one of the best ghost stories made for the big screen. Julie Harris is so very good as the disturbed psychic invited to the supposedly haunted house for a cynical study, who becomes more disturbed when the evil begins to possess her.
The Sand Pebbles (1966) is the kind of political action thriller epic they simply don't make anymore. Wise made one of the very best. Steve McQueen, who had a small role in Somebody Up There Likes Me years before, gives maybe his best performance ever as a U.S.S. gunboat engineer who gets caught up in the Chinese revolution of 1926 when he and his crew are sent on a mission to protect American interests up the Yangtze river. McQueen does his strong loner with a penchant for self-sacrifice thing perfectly and at a deeper level than he had previously, garnering what would be his only Oscar nomination (unfortunately for him this was also the year of A Man for All Seasons and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?). The supporting cast is just as stellar, including Mako, Dickie Attenborough, Candy Bergen, Richard Crenna and Joe Turkel. Great movie.
Wise won his Oscars for the Musicals West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965), but as should be clear his filmography was diverse and accomplished. He also helmed I Want to Live! (1958), Run Silent Run Deep (1958), The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Body Snatcher (1945), Two for the Seesaw (1962), Audrey Rose (1977), Helen of Troy (1956) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Starting his career in sound effects in the early days of that technology and then moving to the editing room for such classics as The Hunchback of Natroe Dame (1939), My Favorite Wife (1940), The Devil & Daniel Webster (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) and Citizen Kane (1941) - getting an Oscar noimination for Kane, Robert Wise really did it all in the business, starting in the 1930s and finishing his career in the 1980s! His name doesn't have the same recognition as some of his contemporaries, but he was one of the great filmmakers.
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
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Originally Posted by Holden Pike
Wise made a bunch of my favorite movies.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is one of the first real Sci-Fi movies from Hollywood and still one of the best. A large flying saucer lands in Washington D.C.; Klaatu (Michael Rennie), a humanoid from another planet, and his silent robot GORT emerge and inform the world they must learn to be peaceful or perish. Simple but effective parable, cemented by the performances of Rennie and Patricia Neal, the earth woman who becomes involved with him during his stay. "Klaatu barada nikto."
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is one of the first real Sci-Fi movies from Hollywood and still one of the best. A large flying saucer lands in Washington D.C.; Klaatu (Michael Rennie), a humanoid from another planet, and his silent robot GORT emerge and inform the world they must learn to be peaceful or perish. Simple but effective parable, cemented by the performances of Rennie and Patricia Neal, the earth woman who becomes involved with him during his stay. "Klaatu barada nikto."
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thanks holden...i will miss him for all his contributions especially sound of music and west side story
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